schea 202

SoCal Recruiting News & Report

Recruiting News: The Schea Cotton
Story Continued--(February 2, 1998)

This was posted to the Usenet newsgroups on Saturday, and concerns Schea Cotton, who is now attending St. Thomas More Prep school on the East Coast. You may all remember that Schea was one of the most highly recruited and prized freshmen at UCLA, and with he and Baron in the backcourt, and Toby, JR and Jelani in the frontcourt, with Watson as a backup, UCLA was reported to have the No. 1 or No.2 recruiting class in the country. Well, that was before Blazer-gate, before (and after) the Harrick firing, and before the NCAA invalidated Schea's SAT scores after he had already enrolled and was attending classes at UCLA. Schea wasn't going to stop playing, so he enrolled at a prep school in the east to either qualify or to keep his game sharp while preparing to jump to the NBA. He's now at St. Thomas More, and according to Mark S. Fitton, who saw him play Saturday, is doing very well. Here's the report Mark posted Saturday following the game:

Last night I had the distinct pleasure to attend a local prep school tournament at St Thomas More Prep School(STM). It is located only 5 minutes from me (10 last night due to lousy weather). STM was playing New Hampton and beat them 97-80. This place holds maybe 250 people. No admission price either. I had to stand for the entire 1st half. When I found a folding chair for the 2nd half, I was camped on the baseline, next to where the ref stands during free throws. STM, of course, has Schea Cotton playing for them, as well as Ajou Ajou Deng. Mike Jones was with them earlier, before he enrolled at GW.

The level of basketball I saw, for free, was outstanding. The atmosphere reminded me of the real old days. Lousy weather. Packed, steamy, very noisy, tiny gym. It was hoops heaven.

Anyway, Mr. Cotton is a tremendous talent. He had 34 points, a bunch of rebounds, couple blocks, and a rim-rattling, bring the house down slam dunk. I couldn't help feel that I was watching a guy who right now would be one of the top freshmen in America had he been able to stay at UCLA. For free! He has crossed off UCLA from his list. Rhode Island, surprisingly, isn't on his list. UConn is, among others, but I'm betting he turns pro. That was the general talk amongst the crowd. Most everyone there thought he would turn pro. He has got game.

Ajou Ajou Deng (pronounced azhew-azhew) is 6'11" and skinny. He is from Senegal(?) and committed to UConn over a year ago when he came to America to attend college. His English was such that he has spent last year and this at STM to be eligible to play college hoops. He had 22 points, 15 rebounds, 4 blocks, 4 assists and he hit a 3-pointer (only 1 I saw him try too). And he played every minute of the game, save the last 40 seconds when the game was no longer in doubt. He is tireless, somewhat raw, runs the court very well and is much more advanced than Souleymane Wane is. He is prone to being pushed around and needs to beef up some. His ratings in Gibbons list are sort of low, primarily because he missed some key tournaments last summer. Deng, along with Edmund Saunders and the current big men, will give UConn a huge
frontline for the next couple years.

Mark

And there's more Cotton news: Apparently, in preparation for the Spring signing period, Cotton has scheduled his "official" visits. He will reportedly be at N.C. State the second weekend in February (Feb 8), at Georgia Tech the following weekend and at Syracuse the last weekend of February, and as Mark notes, he is also considering Connecticut.